Hispanic media company Univision Communications’ rebranding of its sports operations to TUDN is an attempt to make its presence in the United States and Mexico greater than the sum of its parts, its president of sports has told SportBusiness Media.
“This is something we believe brings together many levels of what we’re doing and better connects everything we’re doing in both the US and Mexico,” Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Univision and Televisa president of sports, said. “We see many new opportunities by going forward with this singular brand.”
The rebranding of what was formerly known as the Univision Deportes Network, which took effect July 20, will continue Univision’s ongoing collaboration with Mexican media company Grupo Televisa.
The new name, roughly translating to ‘your sports network’ in Spanish and phonetically similar to ‘tune in’, was developed with the aid of Florida-based branding and creative agency Blanco-Lorenz, and will be used in both countries.
The TUDN brand will apply to the network’s extensions on terrestrial and satellite radio, mobile, and online in addition to TV. The new brand will also be used for sports telecasts on other Univision Networks such as UniMás and Galavisión, not unlike how the ESPN brand has been deployed for events shown on ABC in the US.
TUDN continues to have an extensive presence in soccer, with rights to Liga MX, Major League Soccer, the Uefa Champions League, Copa MX, and Bundesliga, among other properties. It will also show beginning this week the new Leagues Cup between Liga MX and MLS clubs.
With the branding change, Univision plans to expand its daytime studio programming, particularly, around Liga MX. And two new expanded live soccer coverage programs planned for this fall include “Zona Fútbol”, a “Red Zone”-style whip-around show covering group-stage competition in the Champions League and Uefa Europa League.
“This is so much more than a mere cosmetic change,” Rodriguez said. “This becomes the identity and rallying point for everything we’re doing, and from here we will go both deeper and broader in our programming.”